


The Takeback Job

by Ellimac



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (TV Movie 1996), Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka
Genre: M/M, it's a heist movie, there's also the tiniest hint of 13/Roberts!Master, which isn't something I thought I particularly shipped but....... you know!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:23:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28824417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellimac/pseuds/Ellimac
Summary: After the Doctor's regeneration leaves him with a bad case of amnesia, the Master seizes the opportunity to finally be rid of his longtime foe. Unfortunately, after turning the Doctor in to the Judoon, he immediately regrets this decision. It turns out he'll need the help of his other selves in order to fix up this blunder. But will even four of him be able to pull it off?
Relationships: Eighth Doctor/The Master (Roberts)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18
Collections: Fiftieth Masterversary Big Bang





	1. Act I

**Author's Note:**

> Happy 50th anniversary to the Doctor's best enemy! Featuring art by Merrilycompany on tumblr!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the Master's first attempt to rescue the Doctor fails miserably, he decides he needs to get some help.

The TARDIS whined, jittered, and flashed as the Cloister Bell sounded. It would be nice if the Master could blame the Doctor for this, but the reality was that it was entirely his fault. He had been the one to give the Doctor up to the Judoon; he had been the one to decide to rescue him; and he had been the one to steer the TARDIS directly into the path of the Judoons’ strato-gun. Now, as the TARDIS careened out of control, he was all alone, jerking at the controls and spitting out curse words he could only blame on this stupid American body.

Why had he done it? Why had he seen the Doctor, vulnerable and lost, naked except for a sheet, and decided that the best way to get his revenge would be to turn him over to the Judoon? He had been so trusting, taking the Master’s hand when it was offered, believing he was taking him to a better place right up until those horrible aliens knocked on the door. The look of betrayal on the Doctor’s face had been nearly unbearable. Perhaps that was why he changed his mind as soon as the Doctor was out of sight. But he should have realized that getting the Doctor out of a Judoon prison would never be as simple as walking in and asking for his prisoner back.

The TARDIS juddered to a halt, flinging the Master halfway across the console room. All the lights went out as he got back to his feet.

“You stupid piece of garbage,” he told the center console. “What kind of TARDIS are you that you can’t even take a single hit?”

The TARDIS didn’t respond. Even the Cloister Bell had gone silent.

He strode over and kicked the center console. It shuddered back to life, but only barely. Emergency lights kicked on all around the room, and the console gave one tiny jump. It wasn’t enough power to actually travel through time and space, but it was, at least, something.

He slammed his fist on the console. What was he supposed to do now? He couldn’t get the Doctor back without help, but where could he turn? Gallifrey was obviously off-limits, as they would just send him to be executed again.The Doctor’s other lives would be useless, as they wouldn’t believe him long enough for him to explain what was going on. That human, Lee, trusted him, but he wouldn’t be any help at all.

That left him with one option.

“You’re going to hate this,” he muttered as he manipulated the controls. “And he would hate it even more, if he knew what I was doing. But he’s got no say in the matter, and neither do you.”

The TARDIS whined, but seemed to at least be willing to listen to reason. The Time Rotor slid all the way down and began to gently spark. Simultaneously, a door toward the back of the room opened up, and the Master practically ran through it. One good thing about this body was that its previous owner had kept it in shape. After he had fixed himself up so he wasn’t rotting away second by second, he could make good use of these muscles.

He took a turn, following the twisting passages. He had not been much of a fan of the Doctor’s previous face, but he had to commend him for his taste. This version of the TARDIS was much nicer to stroll through than the previous sterile versions. Even if it was a little dark.

He turned a final corner and found himself standing in the doorway to a brightly-lit room with a huge staircase across from him. This was the Cloister Room, where the Eye of Harmony was, and where he had first gone to get his body stabilized. Now it was where he would open a portal to get the help he needed.

The problem was that the Eye of Harmony didn’t exactly like being opened, let alone being used as a power source for something that was almost definitely a bad idea. It had been hard enough to get it to open a crack so he could siphon some energy for personal use. Now he was going to need a lot more energy, and the Eye wasn’t going to be happy to give it up, especially now that he no longer had a human to help. Maybe he _should_ recruit Lee…

But no. He strode over to the Eye and gripped one of its poles. It wouldn’t come out for him, but he kept his hand on it as he said, “Listen, you. There’s only one way to get your favorite Time Lord back, and you and I both know what it is. Now, I know you don’t like me, but you like _him_ , and if you don’t help me now, you will never get him back. You hear me? Never. And that’s not a threat. That’s a fact. Do we have an understanding?”

He tugged on the pole. After a bit of resistance, it slid out of its holder.

“That’s what I thought,” he said grimly. “Now hold on tight.”

That last part was more directed at himself than the TARDIS. All he needed the Eye for was energy, but in order to open it, he would have to change his eyes. And in order to do _that_ , he would have to briefly release control of his head. He didn’t have to worry about his human host, since he was dead, but it would still be highly unpleasant.

He set the pole carefully aside and gritted his teeth. He only needed the Eye open for a few seconds, that was all. That would give him enough energy to open a portal in the console room, which he’d already primed the TARDIS for. And then the rest of his plan could go into effect. But first he had to open the Eye.

This was going to suck (not a phrase he would have used in any of his former bodies; he had to blame the American for that one).

In one swift movement, he yanked off his sunglasses, bent over the Eye, and pulled his autonomy back from his head. The result of this was that he smacked face-first into the stone, reeled back, and landed with absolutely no dignity on his rear end — but the Eye opened. It opened for a total of a second and a half, but that was all he needed. Energy spilled out, racing past the Master toward the console room. He sprang to his feet, following it without bothering to replace the pole. If he didn’t have careful control of this next bit, he might end up opening a portal to the wrong place.

When he reached the console room, everything was sparking. The Time Rotor was moving jerkily, and seemed to twitch, as if flickering in and out of the timeline.

Perfect.

He ran to the console. The time display was jumping and glitching in a way that he’d never seen before, but nonetheless knew what it meant: the crossing of several timelines.

He watched it closely and flipped a lever. For a moment, the console room was filled with lightning, including a thunderclap shortly followed by a _thud_ as someone landed awkwardly on the other side of the console.

“Yes!” he crowed. But the job wasn’t over. One person wasn’t enough. He needed as many as he could get.

“What on—” began the person on the other side of the console, but the Master interrupted.

“No time,” he snapped. “Hold still.”

“Oh, Rassilon, I know that voice,” murmured the other person, and then, thankfully, shut up. The Master was already concentrating again, looking for the right sequence of numbers to pull another one through.

The second came with a shudder of the TARDIS that felt like an earthquake and a series of popping noises. This time, the person popped in close to the door, and landed heavily with an audible “oof.” The first person to drop in quickly went to assist the new arrival. A spark shot out of the console, narrowly missing the Master’s face.

“You’re going to tear this TARDIS apart,” the first arrival shouted. “What on Gallifrey are you doing?”

The numbers were getting farther apart now. The first new arrival was probably right; the TARDIS couldn’t take this much strain for very long. But if he could just get one more through…

He yelled as the numbers lined up one final time, and he slammed the lever into position. This time, the reaction was several very loud sounds at once: the sound of an explosion; the sound of the Cloister Bell ringing seemingly several times at once; and over all of that, the sound of the TARDIS screaming. He instantly knew that he had pushed it too far, a knowledge that was only reinforced when everything went dark and silent all at once.

“What,” a new voice broke the silence, “the _hell_ is going on?”

“I would very much like to know that, myself,” said the first voice. “Would the version of myself standing by the center console of _not his TARDIS_ care to explain?”

“Ooh, are you me, too?” said a female voice. “I know I saw at least one of me, but for the lives of me, I couldn’t figure out what he was doing.”

The Master didn’t recognize any of the voices. On the one hand, that was a good thing; it meant he had lives to live after this one, against all odds. On the other hand, it meant all of them knew _him_ , but he didn’t know any of _them_.

“The Doctor is in trouble,” the Master began.

“Good,” came the voice of the third arrival.

“ _Not_ good,” the female voice said. “Are you mad? If _he’s_ telling us the Doctor is in trouble, and we’re all here, that means he didn’t cause it.”

“Astute deduction,” the first arrival said. “And given that he has managed to drain the power to the point that even the _emergency lighting_ isn’t turning on, he _really_ needs our help.”

The Master gritted his teeth. “They’ll come on in a moment. Now—”

“If you think I’m going to _help_ the Doctor—” the third arrival began.

“Everyone shut up,” the female voice said. “I’m already getting confused. We’re all the Master, correct?”

“Yes,” the Master said, “and I’ve brought you here to—”

“Be quiet, Shades,” she commanded. “Oh! There are the lights.”

Sure enough, the emergency lights had come on, glowing not quite as brightly as they had before, but at least providing _some_ light. Two of the other three Masters were gathered near the door; one of them looked as he should, with dark hair and a beard and a dignified look, while the other was a woman, dressed in the most ridiculous outfit the Master had ever worn. It almost looked Doctor-ish, and included, apparently, an umbrella, which she held loosely at her side. The third Master stood several yards away, looking quite disgruntled, his hair mussed from the trip. In his hands was an early 21st-century phone.

“Shades?” the Master echoed. He knew he should be going over the situation, but he was too caught off guard by the nickname.

She strode over to him. “Yes, shades, because you always wear them, although I see that you’re not now. What happened? Did the Doctor take them?”

“I left them in the Cloister Room,” the Master muttered. “You can’t call me—”

“I am your future self,” she declared. “I can call you whatever I like. And you lot—” she pointed the umbrella at the other two in turn— “can call me Missy. Though I imagine you know that already, as I don’t recognize either of you.”

“On the contrary,” drawled the dignified Master. “I don’t recognize you, either. As a matter of fact, the only one I do recognize is, as Missy so masterfully pointed out, Shades.”

“You can’t call me that,” the Master snapped.

“You’re fighting a losing battle,” the third Master said, as he strolled over. “But count your blessings. She could have called you Bruce.”

Frustrated, the Master said, “This is not the point. The point is—”

“Ah, yes,” the dignified Master said. “Tell us about this grand Doctor-saving plan you have. I assume that’s why you called us here?”

“The Doctor is being held prisoner by the Judoon,” the Master said, eschewing any further preamble. “As you’re all aware, the Judoon’s security measures are too much for one person to take on alone.”

“Unless, possibly, that person is the Doctor,” the dignified Master said. “What exactly has you so convinced that he won’t escape on his own?”

“You all should remember this one,” the Master said. “He started this life rather… addled.”

There was a collective “ohhh” as all three of them understood what he meant.

“As you can no doubt tell from the damage around you—”

“Oh, so you’re saying you _didn’t_ cause all of this?” Missy said brightly.

“No,” the Master said, after a long moment. “The TARDIS was damaged by a Judoon strato-gun.”

“I see,” the dignified Master said. “So I take it your first rescue attempt went… poorly.”

The Master gritted his teeth. “As I was trying to say, yes. But with four of me, we should be able to manage.”

“I quite agree,” Missy said, “but first things first, we’ll need code names. Can’t very well go around calling everybody ‘the Master,’ can we? It would get far too confusing. Do you mean him? Me? Shades?”

“I’m not—” began the Master, but the third arrival cut him off.

“Only one of us should be called Master,” he said. “Obviously not her, because she’s already called herself Missy. I think it should be me.”

“And why is that?” the dignified Master said, in a world-weary tone that indicated he’d had a few too many losing arguments in his time.

“Because,” the third Master said with a grin, “I called dibs.”

“Let me see that.” Missy bumped the phone out of his hands with her umbrella and expertly caught it before it hit the ground. “Who are you texting? We _text_ now?”

The third Master reached for the phone, but she pulled it out of his reach. “Give that back!”

“Oh, wonderful,” Missy said as she scrolled through the phone. “You’re texting the Doctor. And he’s texting back! Sorry, no— _she’s_ texting back. Well done! What’s your alias this time? We used to have such fun with those.”

“Give it back,” the third Master said, through gritted teeth.

“Oh, I see,” she said. “You’re going by O. She thinks you’re human. That’s adorable.”

She tossed the phone back to him. He fumbled it for a moment, but caught it before it fell, and shoved it into his pocket, fuming.

“That settles that, then,” she said. “You’re O. I’m Missy. He’s Shades. And he—”

“If only one of us is going to go by Master—” the dignified Master began.

“No,” Missy said firmly. “Too confusing. You’ll be Beardy.”

The dignified Master glared at her. “I hardly think that’s—”

“Shut up, Beardy,” said the Master. “Now that that’s out of the way, we need a plan. Obviously—”

“Obviously, the first thing we need is a distraction, so that the others can sneak past security,” Missy said brightly.

“Don’t be stupid,” O growled. “The first thing we need is to scope out their defenses.”

“ _Obviously_ ,” Beardy said, glowering, “the first thing we need is to _fix the TARDIS._ ”

There was a brief silence as they all realized, in the console room lit only by emergency lighting, exactly how right he was. The time rotor wasn’t even going.

“Luckily,” drawled Beardy, “I have a fair amount of experience regarding the matter, as the idiot manages to break it every other week. Now—”

“Sorry,” O said, “how does that follow?”

“The Doctor breaks the TARDIS,” Beardy said, as if explaining to a toddler. “I fix it. It’s quite simple. Are there any other questions?”

“Yes,” said the Master and Missy at the same time. They glanced at each other, and the Master continued, “Why are you fixing the Doctor’s TARDIS?”

“More importantly, _how_ are you fixing the Doctor’s TARDIS?” Missy added. “That is to say, what possible scenario could you be in that he would _let_ you?”

There was a silence. Finally, Beardy said, “It so happens that I am his chosen traveling companion.”

“We do not have time for this,” the Master said loudly, before anyone else could react. “We need to make a plan.”

“I will fix the TARDIS,” Beardy said quickly, flashing the Master a glance that may even have been gratitude. Both Missy and O were staring at him with mouths hanging open. “If I may suggest, it seems to me that Missy would be ideal for creating a distraction.”

“Well, thank you very much,” Missy said. “Maybe we should call you Loverboy, instead.”

“If you—” began Beardy.

“No time,” the Master interrupted again. “That leaves me and O to sneak into the prison. I—”

“And where in the prison is he, exactly?” O said.

“That is the second part of the plan,” the Master said. “Someone will need to find schematics.”

“I’ll do that,” O said. “I’m very good at getting people to believe me.”

“I don’t care,” the Master said. “Now, let’s figure out the details…”


	2. Act 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The four Masters come up with a plan and begin to implement it. What could possibly go wrong?

The TARDIS reeled. It had taken only a few minutes for Beardy to at least patch up the TARDIS enough that it could move, though he warned them all that it wouldn’t be safe to take it through time until the portal that the Master had opened was closed again.

“What do you mean, it’s still open?” the Master said.

“It didn’t automatically close when the power went out,” Beardy said. “It’s dormant, but not closed. We only have so much time before it rips apart the TARDIS, but I won’t be able to close it until I get the TARDIS properly repaired. So,” he said with a dry smile, “better hurry up.”

This must be what the Doctor felt like all the time. Constantly racing against the clock, working with the worst people (and yes, these people were other versions of him, but that wasn’t the  _ point _ ), and soaring through time and space in a barely-working TARDIS. All four of them clung to the console in varying states of dignity as they rocketed toward the last place any of them wanted to be: a Judoon prison.

Missy’s plan for distraction was extremely simple: blow something up. If they kept lobbing bombs at the force field, surely that would attract the Judoons’ attention. The Doctor, fortunately, kept a store of explosives on board, probably confiscated from his last companion. Both Missy and O had been absolutely delighted by this discovery. Beardy had kept his face suspiciously neutral, which made the Master suspect that he, too, was feeling something akin to dread at the idea of either of them being in charge of a whole pile of bombs.

Once the Judoon were sufficiently distracted, Beardy would quickly maneuver the TARDIS back to the other side of the prison, where he would drop O and the Master off. Missy would stay on the TARDIS with Beardy and try to keep the Judoons’ attention while O and the Master would sneak into the prison. The plan got a little hazy after that, but they would be able to communicate using a set of comms the Doctor had stowed away and apparently forgotten about.

Dread proved to be the correct feeling in regards to Missy handling explosives. She leaned far out of the TARDIS to lob the first one at the prison, and when it bloomed into a brilliant ball of fire on the force field, she let out a maniacal laugh.

“If that didn’t get their attention, I don’t know what will,” she said.

The Master watched on the monitor as she threw another one, and barely held back his own excited whoop as he watched a full platoon scramble to respond. That was definitely the American in him. He would have to be careful about that; more of Bruce’s preferences and mannerisms remained in this body than he liked. But for now, they had other things to focus on.

It would be nearly impossible, with the TARDIS in its current state, to actually materialize it inside the structure. That meant that O and the Master would have to do something else that was almost impossible: jump. 

“As long as we’re within the forcefield, you should be able to make it,” said Beardy. “And as long as the Judoon are distracted—and Missy doesn’t get overenthusiastic—I will be able to take us inside the forcefield.”

It was an extremely simple plan. It was also extremely stupid. At this given moment, it was also the only plan they had.

With the door open and the atmospheric shield extended, the crackling of the forcefield sounded like thunder. Beardy navigated closer and closer, until they were right up against it. It still seemed like an incredible distance to jump.

“Go,” Beardy yelled, and the Master, without hesitation, jumped. O was right behind him. The forcefield boomed in his ears, but they were past it, and he could see the platform they were aiming for. It seemed impossibly tiny, but it was coming up fast, and he was on track to hit it. As long as he didn’t hit the wall behind it. It was coming up very fast—

His feet hit the ground and he stumbled, and quickly tucked into a roll to keep himself from falling flat on his face. As he straightened up, he saw O do the same maneuver. He tucked out of the roll expertly and straightened his shirt.

“Impressive,” the Master commented.

“Thank you,” O said. “I’m undercover as a secret agent. You have to know how to do these things.”

“Right.” The Master turned his attention to the wall in front of them. It looked solid, but Beardy had promised that there was an entrance here, and the Master quickly took out the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver (a ridiculous tool, and yet bafflingly useful at times) and scanned the apparently-solid wall.

“There,” he said, pointing the screwdriver at a part that looked no different from any other part of the wall.

O stepped close to examine it and nodded. “Just a hologram. An illusion of security.” He turned back and grinned at the Master. “Budget cuts.”

“Not like they expect anyone to come through this way,” the Master muttered. He stepped forward and put his hand through the wall. From the feel of it, the crack was just wide enough for him to squeeze through, though he would have to duck. O, significantly smaller, stepped through without difficulty. The Master followed, rock scraping against his back and chest. When he was through, he looked up to see O smirking at him.

“Shut up,” he snapped. “It’s not like I had much of a choice.”

“I didn’t say anything,” O said, holding his hands up. “Anyway, we’re on a time limit, here.”

“Right.” The Master tapped his earpiece. “We’re in.”

“Who are you, James Bond?” Missy’s voice crackled through. “Get moving. There’s a squad of Judoon coming your way.”

Sure enough, as soon as she stopped talking, the Master could hear them. He grabbed O and yanked him unceremoniously back into the crack. Luckily for them, the hologram worked both ways, meaning that once they were inside it, the Judoon wouldn’t be able to see them.

The Master counted the footsteps as they passed. From what he could tell, there were eight of them, marching in two rows of four. When they had passed, and he peered out of the crevice, he saw that he had been right. O slipped out of the crevice, and to the Master’s initial horror, he started following them.

“What are you doing?” he hissed. “They’ll see you.”

“They’ll lead us to the control room,” O hissed back. “And if they don’t, we can force them to tell us where it is.” 

He held up a familiar tool, and the Master’s eyebrows shot up. “How did you get that back?”

“Long story.” O pocketed the TCE. “Let’s go before we lose them.”

It was difficult to be sneaky in these corridors, since they were brightly lit and not very winding, but the Judoon were making enough noise with their clumsy footsteps that as long as they stayed out of sight, they had nothing to worry about. This worked perfectly well until the Judoon turned a corner sharp enough that the last of them, with his sideways-facing eyes, spotted them.

He opened his mouth to sound an alert, but O was quick to react, pulling out his TCE and firing off a shot before the Judoon could make a sound.

Though the Judoon hadn’t been able to sound the alert, the one standing next to it certainly noticed when its partner disappeared. It stopped and turned, and saw the two Masters. The surprise on its face would have been comical, if it were capable of making any expression besides anger.

“Anytime now,” the Master hissed at O.

“You know as well as I do that this thing takes a few seconds to recharge,” O hissed back.

“Screw it,” the Master said, and held out the Doctor’s screwdriver. It was embarrassing to resort to this, but the Judoon was already reaching for a button on its armor that would presumably sound the alarm, and the last thing they needed right now was an army of Judoon aware of their presence. The armor sparked, crackled, and then smoked as the Judoon’s mouth dropped open.

Well. Maybe they  _ could _ show surprise after all.

Again, before it could say anything, O hit it with the TCE, and it joined its friend on the ground. O scooped up the doll-like remains and pocketed them. When he saw the Master giving him a look, he shrugged.

“Could prove useful later,” he said.

“I can’t wait to be you and find out what’s going on in your head,” the Master muttered. “You know they’ll notice they’ve lost part of their crew before long. What’s your plan now?”

“Hasn’t changed. We keep following them. They’ll lead us somewhere useful, sooner or later.”

This plan held up until they turned the corner and found themselves facing the six remaining Judoon, who had, in fact, noticed that two of them were missing.

O put up his hands, still holding the TCE. He had a manic grin on his face. “I suppose you’re wondering why we’re here,” he said. “We’re—”

“Intruders,” said the leader of the squad. As one, all six of them reached toward their chests in an identical gesture to the one before, aiming to sound the alarm. The TCE couldn’t possibly get all of them at once, and the screwdriver could possibly stop another one, but that still left four to deal with. Even if there were four Masters, there was no way they could physically take on four Judoon. This called for drastic measures.

He yelled as loudly as he could (which was actually quite loud; he hadn’t had this much lung capacity in a while) and pointed the screwdriver at the ceiling. His intent was to knock out the communications, at least in this sector, but instead of a simple popping sound and a spark, there was the sound of a generator dying, and all the lights went out. At the same moment, he heard the TCE go off, which meant that they potentially had one less Judoon to deal with. They also had a maximum of five seconds before the emergency lighting came on. He grabbed O’s arm and pulled him forward blindly, shoving past Judoon in the few seconds they could orient themselves to act. O yanked him to the left, and the Master remembered seeing a door behind the Judoon, before the lights went off.

But they only had seconds. Could they possibly make it without the Judoon figuring out where they’d gone?

The answer came quickly enough: the door was locked. In his haste, the Master shoved the sonic screwdriver up against the lock, and they met with an audible  _ clack _ . But under the clack was the sound of a lock unlocking, and he yanked the door open and shoved O inside. He had barely made it inside himself and was just closing the door when the hallways lit up with the soft glow of the emergency lights.

There were no lights where they were, and as he felt around the walls, the Master realized it was because they were in some kind of closet. He flinched when O put a hand on his shoulder, but quickly realized he was only trying to hear what the Judoon were discussing.

“Communications have been disabled,” one of them said. “Officer Ko Po. Report.”

“Three officers decommissioned,” said another. “The grid map shows that other sectors still have power. Intruders appear to be using Time Lord technology, but we had no time to scan.”

That was good. The power loss being localized meant that there was a chance their presence was still unknown to the vast majority of the prison population, and the fact that the Judoon hadn’t scanned them meant that they were still anonymous enough to disguise their goal.

“Intruders appear to have escaped,” the second Judoon continued. “Unclear how they entered. We will investigate.”

“We will proceed to the nearest sector with power and sound the alarm,” the first Judoon said (or at least, the Master was pretty sure it was the first Judoon; it was hard to tell, sometimes). “Our commanding officer will advise. Proceed in formation.”

They marched off. The Master held his breath until their footsteps were long gone, and then carefully eased open the door to peer out. True to their conversation, the Judoon were nowhere to be seen. If there was one thing to be said for that species, they always said what they meant and meant what they said. They were not, as it were, a subtle bunch.

“That went well,” he said. His foot hit something, and he leaned down to pick up the final Judoon that had been hit by the TCE. He handed it over to O, who took it silently. “Now what?”

O pointed to the emergency lighting, simple glowing panels along the walls at around ankle height. “We follow those. If the Judoon are smart, they’ll have color-coded the lights to show the quickest ways to reach an exit, a communication point, and a command center. And I’m betting—” He pointed down the hall, where it split off into two pathways, one lit with white and one with orange— “that we need to head  _ that _ way.”

“Would’ve been nice of them to label anything,” the Master muttered, but he turned to head down the orange corridor. If all else failed, he could always blame O.

Missy’s voice buzzed in his ear. “What are you two doing? A whole section just went dark. Thank Rassilon the Judoon don’t seem to have noticed yet.”

“We are improvising,” the Master said. “Now shut up and let us find the control room.”

“Just hurry up before they notice your ‘improvised’ power cut,” Missy said. “By the way, Beardy says to remind you that the clock is ticking.”

“We know,” O snapped. “Next time call us with something helpful.”

The orange corridor took several turns, always leading deeper into the prison. Occasionally it was crossed with blue or green corridors, but though O stopped to consider them, he seemed fairly confident in his decision to go with orange. Obviously, they didn’t want the white corridors, but there didn’t seem to be any of those, leading the Master to believe that the white light was saved for the outer hallways.

“Ah,” O said quietly as they passed a blue corridor. On the wall, at perfect height for a Judoon to see, was a small diagram. There were no words on it, but colors and symbols arranged in lines. O pointed at the top row, which seemed to indicate that orange was equivalent to a circle with a curved line through it.

“Judoon symbol for power,” O said. “We’re on the right track.”

The Master took a moment to study the sign. Blue was equivalent to a circle with vertical lines on it, and green was equivalent to two rectangles overlapping. The prison proper, he guessed, and the nearest communication hub. But a power hub would be closest to what they were after.

He was just thinking how lucky it was that they hadn’t run into any other Judoon when they turned a corner and found themselves facing an enormous metal door. There was no obvious handle, but there was a Judoon hand scanner on the side, which at least indicated which side opened. Above the scanner was the same symbol from the sign. 

O turned and grinned. “Told you so.”

“I didn’t argue with you,” the Master said, exasperated. He elbowed O aside and put his hand on the scanner. If it was anywhere near sophisticated, it wouldn’t take his palm print, but there was a chance they were using outdated technology.

It scanned his hand, and beeped once, red. The door stayed close.

“Clever,” O said dryly. “Good job tricking it into thinking you were a Judoon.”

“And do you have a better idea?” the Master snapped. He was already reaching for the screwdriver.

“Yes, actually,” O said, and the Master turned to see him holding up the two Judoon dolls. He stared at them for a second, and then snatched them and slammed them both against the scanner. This time, it beeped green, and the door began to slowly open.

He nodded to O, who slipped through as soon as the opening was wide enough. There was the sound of the TCE activating, and when the Master followed him through, he saw him reaching down to pocket another Judoon figurine. He turned back to the panel and slapped the shrunken Judoon against it again, and the door began, painstakingly slowly, to close. Now he just had to make sure the Judoon whose footsteps he could hear echoing down the corridors couldn’t get in.

As soon as it closed, he held up the screwdriver again. Just breaking the panel wouldn’t do, as they would probably be able to force it. That meant he would have to figure out how to change the settings on this damn thing. The Doctor was notoriously good at making things that were intuitive to use, but only for himself.

“Whatever you’re doing, I suggest you hurry up,” O said, from somewhere across the room.

The Master ignored him, twisting the screwdriver around in search of the correct setting. The Judoon were getting closer. He estimated he had less than a minute. But the panel he needed wasn’t locking.

“Setting 89,” he muttered. “89… no. 99.”

He twisted the panel again, and this time it clicked into place. He pointed it at the pad, and it lit up, flashing red-green-red-green, until it finally sparked and went dark. He twirled the panel back to its original setting and pointed the screwdriver at the door to seal it.

When he turned around, he saw O typing away at one of the many computers in the room. He raised his eyebrows. “Only one guard?”

“Those explosions must have been very distracting indeed,” O muttered, still typing.

The Master held a hand up to his earpiece and said, “We’ve made it to the control room, but there’s about three squads of Judoon about to converge outside the door. I’m pretty sure that first squadron managed to sound the alarm.

“Good,” Missy said. “I have some fireworks I’ve been waiting to use. Is now the time?”

“Now is definitely the time,” drawled Beardy.

Missy let out a delighted whoop. “Then let’s get on it!”

The Master sighed internally. One day, he was going to be her, too. Then again, at least that meant he was going to have a proper body again.

He turned back to O, whose fingers buzzed on the keys. Before long, he had pulled up what appeared to be a complete, three-dimensional map of the entire prison. The Master leaned over his shoulder to look.

“We’re on a control level,” O said, pointing to the orange stripe in the middle of the prison. “That’s why we haven’t seen any actual prisoners. You’ll have to go up or down a level to find them.” He tapped a key, and the screen zoomed in on an area marked in dark blue. “That’s where the most dangerous prisoners are kept. Given that this is the Doctor we’re talking about, I’m going to hazard a guess that’s where we’ll find him.”

“A guess?” The Master leaned in and saw that each cell was labeled occupied or unoccupied, and each occupied cell was labeled with a number. No names. “Ah. Of course.”

“Fortunately, that’s below us,” O said. “And I say fortunately because you’re not getting out through that door.” He jerked his thumb at the metal door behind them, through which they could now hear the sound of marching Judoon getting very close indeed. “You’re going to need to take the vents. Too small for a Judoon to get through, but plenty big enough for us.” He hit a few keys and the screen moved again, this time showing the orange area where they were. One more keystroke highlighted a system of tunnels spiderwebbed throughout the whole prison.

Well, not quite the whole prison. There weren’t any in the areas colored the darkest green.

O pointed to the corner of the room, where the Master could see a vent cover on the floor. “You’ll have to go through there. I’ll tell you where to go. You’re not claustrophobic, are you?”

The Master gave him a withering look and stalked over to the vent cover. The Judoon were right outside the door now. He yanked the vent cover up, revealing nothing but darkness inside, and looked back at O, who was grinning.

“Good luck in there,” O said.

“Good luck out here,” the Master said, and lowered himself into the vent.


	3. Act 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Doctor's cell is located.

It was absolutely pitch black in the vents. The only light came from the screwdriver, and even that was red-tinted and dull, only illuminating about a foot ahead. The vents were a little too small for him to even properly crawl through them; he had to inch his way along, hoping that the directions from O were correct. It wouldn’t be  _ smart _ for O to betray his former self, but in terms of who to betray and how, the Master had to admit that he had never been that smart about it. That was how he’d gotten into this situation, after all.

“Turn left in about three feet,” O’s voice rang in his ear. “It’s going to slope downwards slightly. Be careful.”

“I’m always careful,” the Master muttered. The fact that he then proceeded to bang his head against the ceiling, which was  _ also _ sloping downward with the tunnel, would just have to go unmentioned.

“After that you’re going to come across a drop,” O said. “It’s going to go straight down ten feet. Try not to make too much noise when you drop. It’s right above one of the hourly patrol routes.”

The Master inched forward until he could see the drop in question. It was, of course, pitch black below, but he had to trust that the drop was as small as O said it was. He scooted forward, and braced himself against the walls of the vent as he began to lower himself down. Again, he had to be grateful that this body had some muscle to it. It made him a little heavier, sure, but it also meant that he could lower himself down, bit by bit, until his feet touched the vent below.

“Nicely done,” O said. “Now turn right and go forward until I tell you to stop.”

“And if you’re too busy being killed by Judoon to tell me?” the Master said. He could still hear the pounding of the Judoon against the door through the open channel.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” O said. “Missy’s had another idea.”

As if on cue, the channel lit up with an incredibly loud bang. The Master nearly ripped his earpiece out, but then he heard Missy let out an ungodly shriek and yell, “That’s right, you nasty Judoon! I’ve come to rescue my former self! How do you feel about  _ that _ ?”

“She’s pretending to be the Doctor,” O said, as if the Master wouldn’t have been able to figure that out without help. “Oh, listen. Do you hear that?”

The banging had stopped. Instead, there was muffled conversation outside the door, which O could clearly hear better.

“‘Oh, no, not another one,’” O said gleefully. “She may have her flaws, but I certainly was good at coming up with plans when I was her.”

“Another one? They must be having some trouble with my Doctor, then,” the Master said. “Fine. Just tell me when to stop.”

He clicked off the earpiece so he wouldn’t have to hear Missy’s excited yells. If one of them needed to contact him, they would have to buzz him directly. The only reason this wasn’t an absolute screamingly bad idea was that, so far, it seemed to be working.

The vent went on another thirty feet before he came to another turn, a T-intersection with a covered opening beneath him. O hadn’t contacted him, so he opened up the channel again just in time to hear another explosion.

“What is going on?” he snapped.

“Quite a lot,” O said. It had been less than five minutes since they had last spoken, but now he sounded harried rather than gleeful. “You’ll need to drop down into the hall and follow the corridor until you hit a door on your left. It’s a supply closet. Go through that and through the vent in the floor there.”

“I would advise you to hurry,” Beardy’s voice came through. “She’s leading them on a chase, but they won’t be focusing all their forces on us for too long.”

“Noted.” The Master backed up so he could pull the vent cover free. It came loose easily enough, and the vent was quickly flooded with light from the hallway below. This section must still have power, then. He poked his head out and quickly scanned side to side to make sure the coast was clear, and then carefully lowered himself out of the vent, as he had before. He was about to ask which way he was supposed to go from here, but it was fairly obvious; every way but one led to a large metal door, much like the one that had led to the initial control room. He started down the hall, quietly wondering about Judoon architectural choices.

Everything was completely silent in the corridor. Whatever was going on outside, he must be too far into the prison to hear it. If something went horribly wrong, no doubt at least one of them would be able to tell him before they were all captured or killed.

The supply closet wasn’t difficult to find. Unlike apparently all other doors, this one was more normally sized, and it had a handle. No need to make it harder to get into the supply closet, he supposed. He opened the door and was met with several rows of what appeared to be spare clothing for a variety of species, hung up neatly and ready to be put on. Below that, right in the back, was another entrance to the vents. He closed the closet door behind himself and lowered himself in as quickly and quietly as possible.

“Now what?” he said.

O took a moment to reply. “Left, forward, left, right, then down again. That’ll put you on the Doctor’s level. Cell 873, prisoner A44-907. Now if you don’t mind, leave me alone so I can barricade the door.”

The banging was back. Regardless of the time limit set by Beardy and the TARDIS, they would have to be quick indeed if all of them were going to make it out of here alive. The Master set off as quickly as he could in the cramped vents. Left, forward, left, right, down. Easy enough. He just had to be quick.

When he dropped out of the vent again, he found himself in an entirely different area. This hall was lined with doors, with a turn every twenty feet or so. Each door had a Judoon hand scanner in front of it. When he tried his hand in one, it popped up a holographic screen showing information on the prisoner inside, and the cell number. Warning: dangerous. Prisoner F99-881. Cell 860. The one next to it was cell 861, containing prisoner F99-882.

So he was close. He just had to find the correct cell. It would help if he could see inside of them, or had any other information besides the numbers, but this would have to do. At least the Judoon were otherwise occupied. A quick tuning into the comm channel confirmed that Missy was still having a wonderful time keeping them busy.

He had to make several turns before he found the “A” block, and had to try several cells before he found the correct one. Now all he had to do was open it.

He scanned the door with the screwdriver, but of course, it was deadlocked. Worse still, there was no scanner pad he could use the Judoon dolls on. He could see a slot where a key card might go, and there was a keypad where a code might be entered, but he didn’t have a key card, and he didn’t know the code.

He tapped his earpiece. “Any chance you could get this cell open for me?”

“No,” snapped O. “You’ll have to open it from there.”

The Master gritted his teeth. “I don’t know the code.”

“And you expect me to be able to look it up?” There was a loud sound from the other end of the line. “Their security is top-of-the-line. It’s not just deadlocked, it’s going through about a trillion codes every second. You’ve still got the sonic, don’t you? Try reversing the polarity. That might blitz the lock and you can—”

He was cut off by a loud crashing sound. The Master grimaced. Hopefully that hadn’t been the door being knocked down. But O was right; with the screwdriver, he should be able to trick the lock. He just had to find the right settings for it.

He didn’t have a lot of time. Aside from the mess that O was in, he could hear distant footsteps on this level, meaning that he was likely about to be discovered. He didn’t have time to experiment, so he held the screwdriver up to the lock and activated it while he fiddled with the settings. It wasn’t ideal, but none of this was ideal. 

The light flickered, and the screwdriver buzzed, and after what felt like far too long, some mechanism deep inside the door clicked. The Master yanked at it before it had a chance to change its mind, and the door began to open, painfully slow. As soon as it was open enough for him to look in, he put his head through and saw—

—a completely unfamiliar blonde woman, who was standing at the other end of the cell in a fight-ready stance, looking absolutely shocked.

“What the bloody hell are  _ you _ doing here?” she said.

The Master simply stood there, his mouth hanging open. The fact that they were short on time no longer seemed relevant. His brain seemed to have short-circuited.

“Never mind,” the woman said, and grabbed his hand as she ran out of the cell. “A jailbreak’s a jailbreak. Let’s go.”

“Doctor?” he said.

“Who else would I be?” She stopped so suddenly that he almost ran into her. “Unless… oh, no. Don’t tell me there’s another version of me in here.”

“That’s who I was looking for,” the Master said. “ _ My _ Doctor. Not you.”

“Brilliant,” the Doctor said. “Just brilliant.”

“If you could come back to the control room,” O’s voice came through his earpiece, “I would just  _ love _ to have some company.”

“Wrong Doctor,” the Master said shortly. “Beardy, can you get Missy to the control room? I still have a Doctor to find and O could use some help.”

“Certainly. Would you like me to drop off some tea, as well?”

“What?” The Doctor shook her head. “Oh, you’re working with yourselves, aren’t you? Peachy. Peachy keen. How many of you do I have to deal with?”

“Four,” the Master said, “and we’d better keep moving. There are Judoon everywhere.”

“In a Judoon prison? I never would have guessed,” the Doctor said, as she began to tug him along again. “All right. Follow me. You don’t happen to have a sonic screwdriver on you, do you?”

Wordlessly, the Master handed it over. She examined it without stopping. “Bit crude, but it could be worse. So who else do you have with you?”

“A few others. I don’t know if you’d recognize them. What’s your plan, exactly?”

“Ah,” the Doctor said. “It’s a brilliant plan. One of my very favorites. It’s called ‘wing it and see what happens.’”

With Judoon footsteps still approaching, and the Doctor apparently choosing random directions at every turn, the Master sputtered. “That’s your plan?”

“Well, I tried being mysterious and manipulative once,” the Doctor said. “Didn’t really suit me. Oh! Hello!”

The “hello” was directed at a Judoon that they had just turned a corner and nearly run into. The Master reached for the screwdriver, but realized he didn’t have it anymore.

“Prisoner has escaped,” the Judoon said. Its hand went to its chest to hit the alert button, but the Doctor pointed the screwdriver and disabled it, just as the Master had earlier.

“Not so fast,” the Doctor said. “I haven’t escaped  _ yet _ . Still in the prison, aren’t I? No need to sound the alarm. Come on!”

She pulled the Master along past the Judoon, which was apparently quite confused, because it didn’t react. They were already well down the hallway before it seemed to realize it had been tricked, and let out an enraged cry.

“Where are we going?” the Master said.

“Where  _ are _ you going?” Missy’s voice chimed in. “If we know where you are, we can tell you where to go. Hello, Doctor. Tell the Doctor I said hello.”

The Master gritted his teeth. “We’re a little busy for that. Are you in the control room?”

“Not yet, dear, not yet. Working on it. Oh, I  _ have _ got a plan.”

“They’ve almost battered down the door, so I hope it’s a damn good plan,” O said.

“Shut up,” Missy said in a singsong voice. “Which Doctor is it, Shades? Do I know him?”

“Her,” the Master corrected.

“Oho! I must be more inspiring than I thought. Wonderful. Hold on tight, O, I’ll be there in a moment.”

The channel went quiet just as the Doctor took another turn, and they found themselves facing a dead end. The Master quickly looked up and pointed. “Into the vents. That’s how I got here.”

“Brilliant,” the Doctor said. “Give me a boost.”

It was entirely undignified, but with Judoon footsteps still echoing down seemingly every hall, he had no choice. He knelt down, and she scrambled onto his shoulders to open up the vent cover. She was quick to scramble inside, and then turned to offer her hand to the Master.

“I’m stronger than I look,” she said, when he hesitated.

So he took her hand, and between the two of them, they were able to pull him up into the vent. She passed him the cover and he set it back into place just as he heard at least two Judoon round the corner.

“Sector Alpha-9 is clear,” said one of them. The Master closed his eyes and thanked whatever deity was responsible for not giving the Judoon the ability to look up.

He listened as they stomped off. Only when they were long gone did he let out a breath.

“So,” the Doctor whispered. “Care to explain exactly what’s happening here?”

“Hold on,” the Master said, and took out his earpiece. With the Judoon far enough away, it should be safe to put the other Masters on speakerphone, so to speak.

“Long story short,” he said, “the Doctor—your eighth incarnation, I believe—was taken prisoner by the Judoon. I tried to rescue him on my own, but that… didn’t go well. So I gathered a team of my future selves to help. And apparently, we tracked down the wrong Doctor.”

“Don’t forget that we are on a time limit,” Beardy said. He sounded tired. “At least the TARDIS is no longer being attacked.”

“My TARDIS?” The Doctor looked affronted. “What are you doing with  _ my _ TARDIS?”

“I don’t think I need to remind you why I ended up in  _ this _ body,” the Master snapped. “I don’t exactly have access to my TARDIS.”

“Right.” She paused. “So. What’s the plan now?”

“Apparently,” the Master said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “it’s ‘wing it and see what happens.’”

“I’m going to the control room to rescue O,” Missy said. “I’m almost there. Are you the Doctor O was texting?”

“I was,” the Doctor said. “Are we going by code names?”

“No,” the Master said, at the same time Missy said, “Yes.” The Master snatched his earpiece back and put it back in place.

“I’ll be Bob,” the Doctor said.

“This is all very sweet and all,” O said, “but I could use some—”

“Yes, I’m on my way,” Missy said. “Be patient.”

“Patience is not exactly an option!”

‘Have you tried meditating?”

The Master switched off his earpiece and sighed.

“Has it been like this the whole time?” the Doctor (or Bob, he supposed) said, her voice tinged with sympathy.

“Yes,” the Master said. He didn’t bother to hide his exhaustion. Bob made a sympathetic noise, and he closed his eyes, not that it made much of a difference in the darkness of the vent.

“Best not to stay here,” Bob said. “Least we can do is keep moving, make us harder to find.”

“Whatever,” the Master muttered. But when she started off down the vent, he followed, keeping his thoughts about how poorly this was going entirely to himself.


	4. Act 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having found the wrong Doctor, the Master squad now needs to find the right Doctor and escape.

“So I’ve been thinking,” Bob said.

“It hasn’t even been a minute,” the Master said.

“Yeah,” Bob agreed. “Plenty of time to think. You said the Judoon took me—well, my former self—captive. I don’t suppose you had anything to do with that?”

The Master was silent.

“That’s what I thought,” Bob said. “So you made a mistake and decided to get your other selves in on it? I’m surprised you didn’t recruit anyone else.”

“I didn’t have much time,” the Master said. “Nor much choice.”

“Mm. Right. Well—”

She was interrupted by a dull sound from somewhere far off. It sounded like something, somewhere in the prison, had exploded.

“That’ll be Missy,” Bob said. “Good. O probably needs the help.”

Sure enough, a few seconds later, Missy’s voice came through the earpiece. “Control room has been secured! Where are you lot? We’re going to find the other Doctor.”

“We’re in the vents,” the Master said. “Are you able to track our location?”

“Certainly. O, you do that. I’ll track down prisoner information. Beardy, how’s it going now that you’re on your own?”

“Much quieter,” Beardy said. “But I warn you—”

“I know, I know, we’re on a time limit. We’re on an even shorter one now, since I just blew up the door, and a few Judoon with it.”

“Found them,” O cut in. “Keep moving forward and you’ll hit a vent up into another storage closet.”

“Got it,” the Master said. “Keep moving forward.”

“They wouldn’t have two of me on the same level,” Bob said. “Do they know where the other Doctor is?”

“They’re working on it.” There was a noise from his earpiece that sounded like more Judoon approaching. He grimaced. “They’re working on it fast.”

The Judoon seemed far too occupied with whatever was going on in the control room to be bothered with anything else in the prison. At least, there weren’t any that seemed to be tracking them through the vents. The last Judoon they had seen or heard were the ones that cleared the sector.

“Got it,” O said, after they had been going forward for another minute or two. “Another prisoner with the same description. Highly dangerous, blah, blah, blah. One floor up. You’ll have to get out of the vents eventually, but stay in as long as possible. Turn left at your earliest opportunity, then right, then left, forward at the junction, forward again, left again, right, forward about eighty feet, and then go up.”

“Left, right, forward, forward, left, right, forward, up,” the Master repeated. “Got it.”

“And you’re sure you’ve got the right Doctor this time?” Bob said. “Not that I’d object to rescuing more of my selves…”

“This is a new prisoner, apparently not even fully processed yet,” O said, apparently having heard her. “If it’s not the right Doctor, then he’s not here.”

“Good to know,” Bob muttered, once the Master had relayed this information. “Well. Shall we?”

She started off again without waiting for an answer. The Master followed, noting her increased pace and speeding up, himself.

The silence between them was not at all surprising. This wasn’t  _ his _ Doctor, after all, and she probably didn’t want to say too much, for fear of revealing too much about the future. It made sense, and it was  _ fine _ . It didn’t matter that the last time he’d gotten to speak to the Doctor, he had almost immediately betrayed him.

So when Bob said, “So how come you have to rescue him?” he had to hold himself back from answering too quickly.

“He’s not exactly able to rescue himself,” he said. “You remember the state you were in at the beginning of this life.”

“Ah.” Bob paused. “Thing is, this isn’t how I remember it going.”

“Oh.”

There was a long silence as the Master tried to think through the implications of that. He quickly decided they were far too sticky to think through.

“But when other lives are involved, I often have faulty memories,” Bob said, apparently deciding the same thing. “So maybe this  _ is _ how it went. I suppose we’ll see.”

“Yes,” the Master muttered. “I suppose we will.”

The vents seemed endless. He began to question why he  _ had _ decided to rescue the Doctor. Surely being in a Judoon prison wasn’t the worst fate he could have endured, and surely he would have found a way out… eventually. Right?

But here he was, crawling through a vent with a future incarnation of the Doctor who apparently didn’t remember the events that were taking place, and not all his future selves remembered each other, either. It seemed that not only was this a mess of timelines, it was a mess of alternate universes, as well.

They reached the vent that O had indicated, and after Bob lifted up the vent cover to peer around and confirmed that the coast was clear, they climbed out into the hall. Bob offered her hand, but the Master pulled himself out on his own, this time. He didn’t need her help.

“Where are we going now?” he said.

“Down the hall and to the left,” O said. “Cell 747, prisoner F56-044. Hurry. We’ve got Judoon converging from all sides.”

“How’d you get me out?” Bob said, as they hurried along the hall.

“Brute forced it with the sonic screwdriver,” the Master muttered, half his attention on listening for Judoon. “Reversed the polarity. You used to love doing that.”

“I did,” Bob said. “And it’s a good idea. Did you come up with that yourself?”

The Master thought about admitting that it had been O’s idea, but decided that “Yes” wasn’t actually a lie. Bob nodded approvingly.

The cells on this floor were arranged in much the same way as they had been on the floor below. That meant, luckily, that the Master was able to figure out where to go much more quickly than he had been before, once he saw the number on the first cell. And this time, he could listen for Judoon while Bob fiddled with the cell.

“Bloody hell, this is difficult,” Bob muttered. “You must have gotten lucky.”

“Or maybe,” the Master said stiffly, “I’m clever.”

“Yeah, maybe.” It was obvious she wasn’t really listening. “Ooh, I hate these locks. Ah! There it is.”

The lock clicked and the Master yanked at the door. Like the other one, it opened interminably slowly, but as soon as it was open enough, a familiar figure shuffled out.

“Oh, they didn’t even dress him,” Bob said.

The Doctor was indeed still naked except for a sheet. The Master looked him over once, all too aware of the way he shrank from his gaze.

“You’re the one who put me in here,” the Doctor said. “And you… who are you? I think I know you. I’m sorry,” he added, his tone apologetic, “I seem to have forgotten who I am.”

“I’m just your friendly neighborhood Bob,” Bob said. “And this is… also your friend. Shades, was it?”

The Master gritted his teeth. “Yes. Shades. I’m sorry for what I did. I changed my mind.”

“Oh,” the Doctor said. “Well, that’s all right, then.”

“Let’s get you some clothes,” Bob said brightly.

“Not to interrupt what is no doubt a touching reunion,” Beardy said, “but we are running out of time. We have twenty-seven minutes until the portal tears apart this reality, as well as any others it might be attached to.”

“How are you so precise now, when before it was all ‘oh, we only have so much time’?” Missy said, over a background of quite a lot of noise. The Judoon must have regrouped.

“The TARDIS is fixed,” Beardy said tightly, “so it’s able to tell me exactly how much time is left. Twenty-six minutes now.”

“Missy, O, go through the vents,” the Master said. “We’ll meet you in the storage closet on this level. Think you can remember the way?”

“On our way,” Missy said, then shouted something not meant for the other Masters. The Master clicked off his earpiece again and turned back to the two Doctors.

“Let’s go,” he said. “We’re running out of time.”

“Excuse me,” the Doctor said, as Bob made to grab his hand and drag him along. “If you two are my friends, you must know my name.”

“You’re the—” The Master began.

“Bedsheet,” said Bob. “Your name is Bedsheet. For now, anyway. Come on, apparently we’re in a hurry. This is a jailbreak, you know.”

“Bedsheet,” the Doctor said. “That doesn’t sound right.”

“We’ll talk about it later,” the Master said. “Let’s  _ go _ .”

The Master’s single heart thumped painfully against his chest. Was it the exertion, the excitement, or was he simply falling apart again? It  _ had _ been something of a quick fix with the Eye of Harmony. Could it have worn off, or was he just not used to all this running and climbing?

It didn’t matter. They had to get to the closet. Then they could meet up with the other two, and hopefully get Bedsheet some real clothes. Him having to hold the sheet to himself made him move a little slower than Bob and the Master, meaning they both had to tug him along to keep pace. Clothes would be practical, as long as he could dress quickly enough.

It proved more difficult to find the closet than the Master had hoped, but once he had oriented himself properly, it didn’t take long. Once there, it was easy enough to find an outfit that Bedsheet would fit into, and to politely turn around while Bob helped him into it. No sooner had he slipped on his second shoe than the door burst open, and all three of them turned around, the Master expecting to see a whole squadron of Judoon.

But it was only O and Missy. Bedsheet still looked startled, and Bob was clearly not thrilled to see O, but Missy opened her arms as if aiming for a hug.

“Happy reunion,” she said. The Master quickly stepped back to dodge her hug.

“Twenty minutes,” Beardy said.

The Master put a hand to his earpiece. “We’re going toward the bottom of the prison. Think you can meet us there?”

“As long as you can be outside, yes,” Beardy said.

The Master pointed to the back of the closet. “Vent. Go.”

“This is exciting,” Bedsheet said, as he followed Bob down into the vent. The Master was right behind him. “It’s my first jailbreak.”

“It’s not,” said Bob, “but by all means. Does anyone know exactly where we’re going?”

“I looked at that damn map long enough,” O snapped. He was in the lead, followed by Missy. “I know where I’m going.”

This proved to be not quite true. Less than two minutes later, he let out a yelp, followed by a series of thumps from increasingly farther away. The rest of them stopped until a final thump and a groan.

“Be careful,” Missy said. “I think there’s a drop coming up.”

“I hate you,” O said.

They started forward again. “It’s more of a slide than a drop,” Missy reported. “If we’re careful, we should be able to get down it quickly and painlessly.”

“I hate you,” O said again.

“What?” Missy said innocently. “I’m only trying to help. I’ll go first. O, you’d better move out of the way.”

O grumbled, but did move, and Missy slid down much more gracefully. After her was Bob, followed by Bedsheet, whom the Master had to give a little push to get him to go. Finally, the Master lowered himself into the drop, and let himself go.

It was a slide, but it was a steep slide, easy to fall down. He hit the bottom more quickly than he was expecting, and slid directly into Bedsheet with a yell.

“Quiet,” Missy said. “Where to now, oh clever O?”

“Shut up and follow me,” O snapped.

“I’m in position,” Beardy’s voice came through the earpiece. “You have seventeen minutes.”

“I think I remember who I am,” Bedsheet said. “Are we in a Judoon prison? That sounds right. What’s a Judoon?”

“Big nasty alien,” Missy said.

“Big nasty aliens that probably know where we are now,” O said, “given all the noise, and the fact that  _ we _ were able to track you down.”

“So hurry up,” the Master snapped.

“I’m hurrying,” O snapped back. “We’re going to have to drop out of the vents soon. Everyone be ready.”

“Like you were?” Bob said.

O didn’t reply, just kept moving faster. The Master didn’t roll his eyes, but it was a near thing.

O stopped after a few minutes and lifted up a vent cover. In the light from the hallway below, the Master could see more clearly, though the only view he currently had was Bedsheet’s rear end. It wasn’t a bad view, but it wasn’t all that helpful, particularly when he heard the telltale sound of Judoon approaching.

“Hurry,” O said, and dropped through the vent without bothering to keep quiet. Missy quickly followed, then Bob, and though he still seemed to be a little addled, Bedsheet was quick to jump down. The Master swung down after him, and found that O had already taken off down the hall. One glance in the opposite direction showed him why: Judoon shadows grew larger and larger on the wall, indicating a lot of them were just around the corner. He turned and ran, quickly overtaking Bedsheet and grabbing his hand to drag him along. He seemed oddly distracted, but the Master didn’t have time to give that thought, any more than he had time to reflect on how very soft his hands were.

“Do you know where you’re going?” the Master yelled at O, who was now several yards ahead. 

“Yes,” O yelled back. “Save your breath.”

The Master, pulling Bedsheet behind him, quickly overtook Bob. He was gaining on Missy, too, when he heard the Judoon shout behind them. Too many were shouting at once for him to tell what they were saying, but it didn’t matter; they had been spotted, and were now being chased.

“How much time do we have?” he panted.

“Eleven minutes,” Beardy reported. Things were starting to sound hectic on his end, with the sounds of sparks and small bangs echoing through the earpiece.

“We’re almost there,” O shouted.

“Good,” Missy said, sounding annoyed for the first time. “This dress isn’t exactly built for running in.”

“That’s why I didn’t—oh!”

The exclamation from Bob made the Master stop and turn. It was quickly obvious what had happened: the Judoon must have activated extra security measures, and Bob was now suspended in the air, held by a huge, sticky web of dark amber.

“Go!” she yelled, when she saw that everyone had stopped. “I’ll be fine! You don’t have time for this!”

The Master took a step forward, about to help anyway, but he quickly realized that she was far too stuck to get her out in the few minutes they had left.

“Take this,” she said, and tossed Bedsheet’s sonic screwdriver with as much force as she could, given that her arm was trapped. It clattered against the floor, and the Master went to pick it up. “Now go!”

“You heard the woman,” O shouted. “Let’s  _ go _ !”

There was no time to argue. The Judoon would be occupied getting Bob down, but they still had the TARDIS’s time limit to worry about. Bob wasn’t who they had come to rescue, anyway, he told himself. It was fine to leave her. It was fine.

“Isn’t that—” Bedsheet began, slowing down, but the Master just tugged him along faster. Whatever he had to say, he could say later, when they were safe.

O took a sharp turn, and suddenly there was a door, unlike all the other doors. It was huge, for one thing, and it had a door handle. The Master recognized right away that it was an airlock door.

“We’re here,” O said.

“Three minutes,” Beardy set. “Get through the door, now.”

The Master stepped up and held up the screwdriver. An airlock, fortunately, had much less security than the cells, so it took less than thirty seconds to unlock it.

“If we’re going through an airlock,” Bedsheet began, but all three of the Masters shushed him.

“We’ll be fine,” the Master said. “There’s a ship waiting for us on the other side.”

“The TARDIS,” Bedsheet said, but the Master didn’t reply, too focused on opening the second airlock door. The first one closed automatically, painfully slowly, and just before it shut, he heard Bob yell as she was no doubt taken captive again by the Judoon. He felt a pang of guilt, but reminded himself that she had told them to go, and they wouldn’t have had time to rescue her, anyway.

As soon as the first door closed and sealed, the second door began to open. There was no way to make it go faster, but the Master pushed at it anyway, counting down the seconds in his head. Two minutes left.

The air was ultimately contained by the forcefield, meaning that they were safe from being sucked out. Unfortunately, that meant that they would have to make another leap to make it to the TARDIS. He could see it, hovering what looked to be an impossible distance away. Could they make the jump? They would have to. As he watched, the door opened, showing Beardy in the doorway, and utter chaos behind him.

“One minute,” Beardy shouted.

“Go,” the Master snapped.

O backed up and took a running leap. As they watched, Beardy caught him and pushed him into the TARDIS. Missy quickly did the same, letting out a yell as she jumped. Beardy caught her, too, and when Bedsheet jumped (or rather, was pushed by the Master), he had to lean out of the TARDIS to catch him. Finally, the Master took the same running leap as Missy and O, and Beardy stepped aside, as his jump had propelled him far enough that he made it inside the TARDIS without help.

It was chaos inside. The lights were off, meaning the console room was lit only by the emergency lighting again. Sparks were everywhere, and the center console was smoking. Near to the console was a pulsing, swirling light. The portal.

“Reverse order,” Beardy roared. “Go.”

O charged through the portal, and Beardy ran to the console and flipped a switch. The portal glowed brighter for a moment, and he turned to Missy and yelled, “Go.”

She blew him a kiss, picked up her skirts, and plunged through the portal. Beardy flipped another switch and pressed a few buttons, but before he could take more than a few steps toward the portal, a stray spark from the console jolted through him, and he stopped moving entirely.

“What are you doing?” the Master yelled. “You have less than thirty seconds.”

Beardy didn’t respond. The Master reached for his hand, and his face swung open, revealing a robotic visage underneath.

“Oh, Rassilon, I do  _ not _ have time for this,” he moaned, and turned to shove Beardy through the portal. Once he was through, he turned back to the console, prepared to shut the portal down. But Bedsheet—the Doctor-was already there.

He flipped a single switch, and the portal seized on itself, and seemed to collapse. As soon as it had, the lights came back on in the room, and though the console was still smoking and there were occasional sparks, things immediately calmed down.

The Master stared at the Doctor, who met his eyes. From the look on his face, it was quite clear that he had regained his memories. He was still dressed in the strange, eclectic outfit they had pulled from the closet, and he still managed to be breathtakingly beautiful.

He flipped another switch, pulled a lever, and the TARDIS made the familiar sound of travel.The Master simply watched him until he looked back up at the Master.

“You and I,” he said, “need to have a talk.”


	5. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath.

After the Doctor had changed clothes into a blue leather jacket and a much more sensible shirt and pants (he kept the shoes; apparently, they fit perfectly), he took the Master to an uninhabited area of a planet that was very much like Earth. Now, they walked along in the grass, the Doctor holding his hands behind his back and breathing in the air.

“So,” the Doctor said, eventually. “You decided that, while I was suffering from amnesia, that you should turn me over to the Judoon… and then changed your mind?”

“I changed it as soon as I’d left,” the Master muttered. How was the Doctor capable of making him feel like a disobedient child?  _ Why _ had he rescued him, again?

“Not soon enough,” the Doctor observed. He glanced over at the Master. “But thank you, all the same. For rescuing me.”

The Master looked at him. “For rescuing you from something I got you into in the first place?”

“Yes,” the Doctor said plainly. “It shows character. You may have stolen a body and kidnapped a barely-functioning Time Lord to turn him into a police force that doesn’t really have a right to capture him, but… then you saved him.”

His face looked soft, too, like his hands, and his eyes were a beautiful blue.

The Doctor held out his hand. “I forgive you,” he said softly.

The Master stared at the offering. His own hand raised partway up of its own accord, but he stopped it, and hesitated. The Doctor held his hand in place, and slowly, finally, the Master reached up to clasp his hand.

The Doctor took a step closer and took the Master’s other hand. “Of course,” he said, “I can’t exactly let you wreak havoc as you wish.”

The Master shuddered. “So what are you planning to do to me?”

“Do to you? Nothing.” The Doctor looked almost surprised. “I’m just going to leave you here. I’m sure you’ll find a way out of it. You always do. You’ve found ways out of worse. Ha—like being executed.” He smiled, giving the Master a quick once-over. “I can’t say I approve of body-stealing, but you did pick a good one, at least.”

The Master felt his face growing hot. The Doctor was so close to him, and holding both of his hands. They were only inches apart.

The Doctor closed the distance between them and leaned up to press a kiss to the Master’s lips. It wasn’t a surprise, exactly, but the Master didn’t have time to react before the Doctor pulled away.

“I’ll see you around, Master,” the Doctor said, as he let go of the Master’s hands. The Master almost grabbed tighter and pulled him back, but let him go. The Doctor smiled over his shoulder. God, he had a beautiful smile.

“See you,” the Master said, as the Doctor entered his TARDIS. He felt oddly soft, like he was made of jelly. How long had it been since he’d kissed the Doctor? Far too long. Far, far too long.

The TARDIS door was closing. The Master took off running and slammed it open. There was the Doctor, making his way to the console, turning in surprise as the Master strode up to him. He caught the Doctor up in his arms.

“I’m not going to let you go that easily,” he said, and kissed him for all he was worth.

The Doctor’s hands found the Master’s sides, and he pressed into the kiss with equal fervor. It didn’t end until the Doctor bumped up against the console, and pulled away to gasp for breath.

“I was hoping you’d do that,” he said breathlessly.

“Good,” the Master said, and did it again.


End file.
